BALOTELLI: THE GAFF THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

The arrival of 2013 could have brought a new year and a new start for Manchester City's egocentric striker Mario Balotelli, however, the year was barely three days in before the Italian was yet again creating headlines, and again even more unsurprisingly for all the wrong reasons.

The 22-year-old was involved in a heated training ground exchange with his manager Roberto Mancini, allegedly after a bad tackle committed by Balotelli on Scott Sinclair. The former Inter Milan forward took exception to his managers orders for him to leave the field, before an ugly altercation occurred. (But enough about Carlos Tevez)

The incident will undoubtedly lead to increased speculation about the strikers future, with many expecting his days at Eastlands to be numbered already, following a string of unsavoury incidents since his arrival in Manchester in 2010.

Mancini has naturally moved quickly to play down the incident and give Balotelli his backing, but for a man who has been so critical of the attitude of his young forward in the past, the clouds of doubt in Mancini's mind will surely becoming darker and darker by the day.

Mancini appears less convincing by the day in his defence of Balotelli, and the stress seems to be getting to the man who once cut an ice cool figure at Eastlands, both in the dugout and during his pre and post match interviews.

City fans must surely be wondering whether now is finally the time to cut their losses on a striker who despite possessing an unquestionable talent, has, for whatever reason, failed to establish himself as a regular first team starter at the Etihad.

With City having one of Europe's most feared front lines in Aguero, Tevez, Dzeko and Balotelli, and with the club's wealthy owners always looking to seek out any other potential world stars, (Radamel Falcao and Edinson Cavani have been linked with moves to the Etihad in recent weeks) the Italian will surely find himself at the wrong end of an impressive pecking order.

Balotelli's talents are known the world over, and ever since he first appeared on the scene at the San Siro, making his debut in 2007, he was always destined for great things. Or so it seemed....

The striker has a bad habit of letting controversy get in the way of what could be a long and prosperous career, and Mancini himself who despite witnessing this first hand at Inter and believed enough to bring him to Manchester, even at times seems to be losing patience in his protege.

Balotelli suffered a turbulent relationship at Inter under Mourinho, who took particular exception, (understandably) to the then 19 year-old wearing the shirt of fierce rivals AC Milan during an interview.

This is just one of a number of headlines made by Balotelli including further training ground bust ups with Micah Richards and Yaya Toure (amongst others), breaking curfews, setting fire to his mansion after setting off fireworks inside the house, throwing darts at youth team players, driving into a women's prison and being unable to solve the modern day rubik's cube that is a bib. (To name just a few incidents.)

But why always him???

AC Milan are rumoured to be interested in offering Balotelli a return to his home nation - a move which would surely he would favour given the t-shirt stunt - and now could be the time to move on and attempt to re-establish his career somewhere that he could go on to become the phenomenon he was once expected to be.

It seems very hard to fathom that despite any attempts of either a reconciliation or playing down rumours of a permanent rift between Mancini and Balotelli that both men will still be in Manchester for the beginning of the 2013/14 season.

The smart money would be on City to back the man who has delivered the club their first ever Premier League title, but with City seven points behind in the title race and nothing to show in the Champions League, without a drastic turnaround in fortunes this season, it is not unfathomable that the current Champions could begin next season's campaign without both of their most famous Italians.

MARQUEZ FINALLY LAYS PACQUIAO GHOST TO REST

On Saturday night at the MGM Grand, Juan Manuel Marquez finally managed to exercise a demon.

Marquez scored a savage knockout on Manny Pacquiao with just one second remaining in round 6 so telling that referee Kenny Bayliss abandoned his count with Pac Man out cold on the canvas.

The Filipino and former pound for pound king has haunted the Mexican, ever since the first of their four explosive bouts, eight and a half years ago.

That night at the same venue, Marquez dusted himself off from three early knockdowns and was able to fight his way back to a controversial draw.

Since then, with the fighters reputations and stock greatly rising, the pair fought twice more, with each fight perhaps controversially going the way of Pacquiao, the first by way of split decision in 2008 before scoring a majority decision last year.

The Mexican legend will have every right to feel aggrieved with the results of each fight, but being the consummate professional he is fought on and no fight fan was disappointed when it was announced that a fourth bout would take place.

The fight was just as important for Pacquiao as for Marquez. Despite winning two of the three bouts, the Filipino still felt that with the results of the previous fights much argued and separating many opinions he needed to stop the Mexican to put an end to the arguments once and for all.

Barely minutes had gone before the Las Vegas crowd knew they were witnessing a 'Fight of the Year' contender, but even they could not have predicted things panning out quite as they did.

Marquez, who had bulked up considerably since the pairs previous meeting, scored an early knockdown, evading a Pacquiao shot before throwing a devastating overhand right to see his rival hit the canvas in third round.

Pacquiao picked himself up almost straight away and was full of movement and as he usually does, dictated the pace of the fight, but was up against a clever fighter in Marquez.

The Filipino scored a knockdown of his own in the fifth round, with a straight left hand shot forcing the Mexican to touch his glove on the canvas and face a mandatory eight count from referee Bayliss.

As the sixth round got underway, it looked more as though we would be seeing a result we had become used to, with Pacquiao controlling the fight and ahead on all three of the judges scorecards.

Marquez was bruised and bloodied, and with a broken nose, Pacquiao as promised moved in for the kill, in an attempt to prove his killer instinct has not yet deserted him, and in search of his first knockout victory since stopping Miguel Cotto in 2009.

But as the saying goes, 'One punch can change a fight' and that was to prove exactly the case. With Pacquiao hunting down Marquez, whose legs had clearly been wobbled earlier in the round, he made one glaring error, one he had not learned from after suffering his knockdown just moments before. Pacquiao deserted his head bobbing and weaving for just long enough to allow one of the finest counter punchers in the sport to land a devastating blow and saw the former pound for pound champion suffer his first knockout defeat since 1999, before his career in the United States took off.

As HBO's Jim Lampley said at the time, the knockout was one of the most devastating seen since Sergio Martinez put Paul Williams out cold during their second encounter, and Marquez certainly would have troubled most Middleweights with his shot.

Pacquiao remained on the canvas for over two minutes while Marquez was mobbed by his corner, the relief and joy clear to see, with the Mexican finally vindicated for his self belief and the efforts given during 42 rounds with the Filipino.

But what now for the two fighters?

In an interview after the fight, Pacquiao called for a 5th bout between the two, while many believe that he should hang up his gloves after suffering two defeats in a row.

The fact is, there is no shame in losing a fight like that to a fighter of Marquez calibre. Pacquiao proved that he was more than in the fight, and looked to be closing in on victory, while his previous defeat to Timothy Bradley was nothing but a farce, with Pacquiao the clear winner.

At 33 years of age, Pacquiao could fight on, and a rematch with Bradley could be on the horizon before a potential mouthwatering 5th matchup with Marquez does take place.

One thing that does appear certain for Freddie Roach's prized asset, is that a mega-fight with Floyd Mayweather may not have slipped just too far out of reach.

Pacquiao has stated last week that he was ready to give into Mayweather's previous demands and a fight had seemed destined to finally take place in 2013. However another defeat for Pac Man means a less desirable prospect for Mayweather who no longer has his position as the top ranked pound for pound fighter in doubt.

Marquez on the other at the age of 39 is surely entering the final stages of career. Although he rolled back the years on Saturday night displaying superb ring knowledge and a formidable display of power, there may not be too many fights left in the Mexican hall of famer.

With another fight with Pacquiao being a viable and an extremely lucrative option, a second bout with Mayweather may tempt him more. This could prove a step to far though even for Marquez who was convincingly beaten by Mayweather in their previous bout in 2009. Mayweather would not leave himself open for Marquez to land bombs like he did on Saturday night, and any rematch between the two would surely go a similar way to their first meeting.

Or perhaps now after finally laying the Pacquiao ghost to rest, Marquez can rest on his laurels and slip into retirement content with being one of the finest boxers of his generation. But with being as capable as he proved on Saturday night, I speak for any fight fan when I say that I would love to see the Mexican fight again. If not with Pacquiao, then perhaps with Miguel Cotto at Welterweight, with the Puerto Rican losing his previous light-middleweight fight to Austin Trout. An all Mexican clash with the unbeaten Saul Alvarez would also be a mouthwatering prospect.

Either way, as much as a Pacquiao victory would surely have edged things closer to a mega-fight with Mayweather, Marquez victory on Saturday night was a victory for boxing, and finally brought justice to a fine boxer.

Why Scott Parker WILL make a good England Captain

While the England captaincy debate rumbles on, question marks still remain over the leadership of the side, with the FA today announcing that Fabio Capello's successor will now not be announced until the end of the season.

Stuart Pearce has ruled himself of the race taking over the poisoned challis but has offered to lend his services to the position for the extent of this summer's European Championships. Pearce took charge of the England side who suffered a 3-2 defeat at the hands of the Netherlands on Wednesday night. But no matter how long or short lived Pearce's tenure proves to be, one decision he made has and will continue to cause a stir.

On the morning of the game, Pearce announced that Scott Parker would lead the side out in what would be just his 11th cap. Despite having more experienced players in the squad such as Steven Gerrard and Ashley Cole, the England caretaker manager opted for a new choice in Parker, who was named England's player of the year just the previous day.



Despite Parker being one of the front-runners for the award along with Steven Gerrard and Joe Hart, many questions were raised by press and fans alike, meeting the appointment with surprise and questioning Parker's credibility for the role, suggesting that Gerrard's experience would make him the obvious choice.

This may be the case, and as Gerrard edges ever closer to the 100 cap mark (now on 90), this will inevitably have been playing on the mind of Stuart Pearce when making his decision. Let's not forget that Gerrard has captained the side before, and skippered the side at 2010's shambles of a world cup campaign for England in South Africa.

I am not suggesting for one second that Gerrard is to blame for England's dismal performance, as he was in fact one of the only shining lights in an otherwise dark time for English football.

The fact is though however, that not only has Gerrard been injured for a large portion of the season, but it could be argued that the Liverpool captain does not quite have the impact for club and country that he once had.

Much like his long term international colleague Frank Lampard, Gerrard cannot necessarily be still guaranteed a place in the side, and were Jack Wilshire to be fit, may be first choice alongside Parker while Gerrard would have to take a back seat.

Parker's appointment caps a meteoric rise for the Tottenham midfielder who first appeared on our screens in a McDonalds advert, as part of a USA '94 World Cup Campaign.



After rising to prominence at Charlton, making his debut at the age of 16, Parker continued to impress and was handed his England debut in 2003 in a friendly against Denmark. Parker capped a dream season by being named PFA Young Player of the Year which was enough to convince Claudio Ranieri to splash out £10million for his services.

Parker struggled to make an impact at Chelsea, with injury restricting his playing time, along with the arrival of manager Jose Mourinho who favoured the Portugese midfielder Tiago instead of Parker.

After leaving Chelsea, Parker joined Newcastle United and began to resurrect his career and was named Newcastle Captain. He spent 2 years with Newcastle before moving back down to the capital, this time with West Ham. It was here where Parker would play some of his best football since his Charlton days.

Parker was again made Captain, and despite West Ham's poor season last season, culminating in relegation to the Championship, Parker's efforts were recognised, as he regained his place in the England side, where he began to establish himself as first choice, as well as being named as Football Writers Player of the Year last season.

It became inevitable that Parker would need to leave West Ham in order to prolong his International career, but now the question was not whether he would be able to cut it at the top level, but instead which top level club he would be turning out for.

It was Tottenham who managed to secure the signature of Parker, and he has continued to show this season why he was so sought after adding some much needed steel to an already impressive Tottenham midfield, and has ensured that the likes of Sandro who began to establish himself in the Spurs side last season, is now firmly second choice.

Parker displays a passion when he plays, he is an old-fashioned ball winning centre midfielder, and while this enthusiasm and drive to compete for the ball can, at times be detrimental to his play. (See last weekend's two bookable offences vs Arsenal)

Although there are other players in the England side who may have more caps or more experience playing either at international level or top class club level, Parker still shows the same hunger and desire he showed at Charlton, and has continued to do so throughout his career.

He plays with a fire in his eyes and a hunger in his belly, and regardless of whether he is wearing the armband or not, looks like he wants to perform for his country, and do his nation proud every time he steps onto the field, more than be said for some of his international colleagues.

At 31 years of age, Parker's appointment may be seen as something of a gamble, particularly due to the fact that he is still relatively inexperienced on an international stage, but the fact is, Parker has played his into this position. His performances over the past 2 years, for West Ham, Tottenham and England have been of a consistent high standard.

How long he has left on the international stage remains to be seen, but while players like Wayne Rooney or Joe Hart who are still relatively young and could captain the side for many years to come, who is to say a more short term option isn't worth exploring.

His appointment of England captain by Stuart Pearce lets not forget may only be a temporary measure, and whoever does take the Manager's job may have other ideas in mind with regards to his skipper, but Parker has done enough to pose a headache for whoever does come into the role.

What England needs is a captain who exudes pride and passion which cannot be doubted that Parker does so. You could see the emotion is Parker's eyes as he led his side onto the field for Wednesday night, and he played with the same pride throughout the game.

Parker is no John Terry. While Terry was and still is a good leader on the park, how much respect he still commands is for anyone to say. Pearce appointed Parker as he is "well respected among the camp" and will do what an England captain needs to do. He will set an example on and off the field and will not find himself in the papers for the wrong reason.



If he get the role long term, I am by no means suggesting that Parker will single handedly ensure that England's many years of hurt will be wiped away and he lead his side to glory at either Euro 2012 or the World Cup 2014, but one thing can be assured, that he will give his all trying. He will never duck a tackle or shy away. He will never shirk responsibility.

Don't get me wrong, if a new manager comes in and appoints either Steven Gerrard or Joe Hart as England captain then they have every reason to do so, with both players displaying excellent leadership credentials and Hart particular would be an outstanding candidate to lead the team for many years to come.

But is Scott Parker the right man for the England captaincy now?? I think so. (Did you get that yet?)